(Pictured from left to right: Paul Sorensen, Jim Marston, Paul Sutton, and John Cloud)
Post Doc Jim Marston was at the National Academies’ Transportation Research Board annual meeting in Washington DC in January, serving on the Accessible Transportation and Mobility Committee. He contacted former grad student John Cloud who happens to live a few blocks from the convention hotel and learned that another former grad, Paul Sutton, was also in town on NSF business and had plans to visit John. The next day, amidst 11,000 attendees in three conference hotels, he ran into yet another grad, Paul Sorensen. All four had been Ph.D. students (and matriculated!) in the Department in the mid to late 90’s. Although they had varied research interests, there is a common bond that develops in grad life, such as sharing offices, resources, collegiums, and libations, as well as the search for geographic insights into today’s, yesterday’s, and tomorrow’s events. They all hooked up the next night and spent a delightful evening at “Chez Cloud” catching up, reminiscing, and quaffing wine and John’s famed (infamous?) home made Lemoncello. A good time was had by all (!), and Jim asked each of these UCSB Geography “good old boys” to share their experiences and comments with the department.
John Cloud (PhD 2000) states: “Following UCSB, I had a postdoc appointment in the Peace Studies Program at Cornell University. When I arrived in Ithaca, everyone thought ‘Peace Studies’ was quaint. After 9/11 occurred, it seemed more relevant. I did an additional postdoc research project at Cornell in the Science and Technology Studies Department exploring the roots of GIS technologies and practices in analog map overlay systems and classified Cold War reconnaissance and mapping programs. Because I was one of the few contemporary geographers who know some definitions for ‘geodesy,’ I was hired under contract to NOAA to research and write the history of the second century of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the oldest scientific agency in the US government and the oldest element of NOAA. This year, 2007, is its 200th anniversary. NOAA has no budget, and is operating under continuing resolutions. Therefore, I might be continuing on the project, or I may soon hit the mean streets of Washington when the money runs out. But it has been an extraordinary time, and I have learned much. I have a scanning project to secure high resolution digital images of the treasures of the Coast Survey Library and Archives Collection. When I actually find the 1870s topography sheet covering Goleta and Pelican Point (now College Point), I will send the image to Geography for your delight and amazement.”
Jim Marston (PhD 2002) is a post doctoral researcher at UCSB who is currently working with a group (Geographer Reg Golledge, UCSB, and Psychologists Jack Loomis, UCSB, and Roberta Klatzky, Carnegie Melon) who developed a GPS-based Personal Guidance System for the blind (see https://legacy.geog.ucsb.edu/pgs/main.htm ). He has been researching and conducting experiments to enhance that group’s user interface, testing various methods to deliver route guidance information. They have examined a wide range of interfaces, including a head or body mounted, or hand held tracking compass and a wide range of audio cues, including various sounds that appear to come from the direction of the next waypoint (virtual sound) delivered through headphones, spoken turn directions, and even a vibrotactile stimulation that informs the user of course corrections. He is also involved with a group from Utah State University who are developing a GPS system which also uses wireless hub locations to assist the user when no GPS signal is available. In addition to his work at Utah State, Jim is participating in collaborative research with the Smith-Kettlewell Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center in San Francisco involving blind pedestrian user needs, a toolkit of measurements to determine the efficacy of various techniques and assistive technologies and travel planning for the blind, including tactile maps and GIS database simulated travel.
Paul Sorensen (PhD 2001) contributes the following notes: “Following the completion of my dissertation, I took a brief hiatus from geography, spending a few years in San Francisco working in the Internet software industry (I arrived just before the dot-bomb bust, so I didn’t have the chance to earn a fortune overnight). Soon I began to miss the opportunity to work on interesting social challenges, however, and I also became increasingly intrigued with the concept of urban sustainability. To pursue this further, I wound up enrolling in the urban planning program at UCLA, where I completed a master’s degree in 2005. While at UCLA, I developed (to my initial surprise) a keen interest in public policy questions. This interest led, eventually, to my current job at the RAND Corporation, where I focus on policy analysis related to land use, transportation, energy, and the environment. RAND turns out to be a pretty amazing place to work, though we could use more geographers around here. The following are a few examples of recent projects that I’ve had the chance to work on: (1) assessing policies to promote improved affordable housing options in coastal Mississippi in the wake of Katrina; (2) developing a methodology for assessing the costs and benefits of alternate physical-design security improvements at LAX; (3) projecting future land acquisition costs and available revenues for assembly of the multiple species habitat conservation plan in western Riverside County; and (4) planning the locations of emergency clinics to dispense medications or vaccinations in the event of major epidemics or bio-terrorist events.
Paul Sutton (PhD 1999) is presently an associate professor in the Geography Department at the University of Denver. Paul was in DC for an NSF workshop on integrating the Social sciences into existing NSF observatories and loved touching base with former colleagues and co-conspirators. Paul fondly recalls playing darts with Reg Golledge at the Faculty Club and wishes DU cared enough for their faculty to even have a faculty club!
Rap sheets on the Boys from DC: John Cloud John.Cloud@noaa.gov (Ph.D. 2000: Hidden in Plain Sight: CORONA and the Clandestine Geography of the Cold War; Keith Clarke, Chair) Jim Marston marstonj@geog.ucwb.edu (PhD 2002: Towards an Accessible City: Empirical Measurement and Modeling of Access to Urban Opportunities for those with Vision Impairments, Using Remote Infrared Audible Signage, Reg Golledge, Chair)Paul Sorensen sorensen@rand.org (PhD 2001: Locating Resources for the Provision of Emergency Medical Services), Rick Church, Chair)Paul Sutton psutton@du.edu (PhD 1999: Census from Heaven: Estimation of Human Population Parameters using Nighttime Satellite Imagery; Dar Roberts, Chair)
(Editor’s disclaimer: Jim Marston gets full credit for organizing this article–and for the terrible pun in the title!)
